During this “socially-engaged embroidery” project, participants are asked to create a work that celebrates their experience of Nantucket. It can be made up of images or words or both. The content of the pages will be open and prescriptive to give people room to express themselves.
Anyone interested in the project is invited to attend the October 1 kick off and learn more about Interwoven Stories, pick up a free kit of embroidery materials, and see examples from other Interwoven Stories projects. The project concludes during the 2018 Nantucket Arts Festival with an exhibit of handcrafted, embroidered “pages” made by Nantucketers. In addition, the Interwoven Stories project includes a printed catalog with a photograph of each work and a short biography of each artist.
The AAN and Atheneum will distribute free kits that contain a page and the supplies needed. Over the year, the two organizations will hold monthly stitching sessions as well as other programs that celebrate the talent of the island’s many stitchers, both past and present.
The project was started by island summer resident Diana Weymar who has facilitated other Interwoven Stories in New Jersey and Washington. Weymar explains the project in her blog linked from dianaweymar.com like this: “This project is about the materiality of touch. Being touched. Touching. The human touch. The common touch….Textile is embedded with a language, like Braille, that can be read by touch as well as sight. When working with memory materials like textile, the subconscious can be more deeply explored. This is a very basic recognition that comes from a place of comfort and humility…. “Beyond the physical touch, the pages reflect the ways in which we connect with each other emotionally on a community level. We often hold memories and connections for each other without being aware of it.”
Weymar will be at the October 1 Arts Festival event to help kick off the project in 2017 by showing works from other projects.
